The first top-class bitcoin conference

The VoB is a top-class dialogue event that brings together bitcoiners, investors, bankers, executives, media and politicians to debate fundamental questions around Bitcoin.

Speaker and Attendee Feedback

2019 conference in retrospect

Dr. Saifedean Ammous

Author, “The Bitcoin Standard”

Dr. Christopher Wallet

Exec. VP, Federal Reserve St. Louis

Jochen Metzger

Director, Deutsche Bundesbank

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit

Chief Economist, Degussa

“I was very much impressed by the amount of high quality discussions which occurred during the conference and would like to participate again.”

“Thank you BayernLB for working up the courage to enable such a worthwhile exchange of knowledge. I’d like to see similar emotional debates at classical treasury and finance forums as well.”

“This was one of the best banking conferences I ever attended. It was quite revealing, balanced and entertaining. I’d highly recommend this conference to colleagues from the banking and investment industry.”

Dr. Saifedean Ammous

Author, “The Bitcoin Standard”

Associate Professor of Economics at Lebanese American University and author of “The Bitcoin Standard – the decentralized alternative to centralized banking”.

Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders.

Jochen Metzger

Director, Deutsche Bundesbank

Director General, Payments & Settlement Systems at Deutsche Bundesbank with more than 20 years of experience in all matters of payments, clearing and settlement. Economist with a master’s degree from University of Mannheim.

Bitcoin has little to no intrinsic value and should not be considered a stable long-term investment. The governance of Bitcoin is shady at best and there are elements of debasing such as forks.

Prof. Dr. Gerald Mann

Professor of Economics at FOM

Professor of Economics and Regional Director of Studies at the private University of Applied Science FOM in Munich. Co-Author of the book “Bargeldverbot” (English: Cash Ban).

Bitcoinis an interesting monetary concept worth looking at because it shows similarities to gold or a gold standard in digital form. Based on these properties, bitcoin or at least its technology could pave the way for the realization of Hayek’s concept of denationalization of money.

Dr. Alexis Eisenhofer

Chairman, Financial.com AG

Founding partner and managing director of financial.com. Degree in economics and PhD from the Institute of Capital Market Research. Dissertation on multi-period portfolio optimization.

Bitcoin lives by the bold promise to be a payment method, yet it cannot fulfill this promise due to its deflationary nature. In this system with a nearly-stable supply, the more goods are traded for bitcoin, the more the price of each good expressed in bitcoin will decrease (deflation). People will start to hold onto their bitcoin as the purchase power increases each day which will slow down the economy on a massive scale. With this in mind, the technical limitations of bitcoin are completely negligible.

Dan Held

Director, Interchange

Founding partner and director of business development at Interchange, a crypto portfolio reconciliation tool used by institutional trading service providers. His first crypto product, ZeroBlock, was acquired in the second ever all Bitcoin acquisition.

Bitcoin is the internet of value. Acquiring bitcoin means you are trading something abundant for something scarce, trading the past for the future, trading financial dependence for financial sovereignty.

Michel Rauchs

Research Lead, CCAF Cambridge

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Lead at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Co-author of several empirical benchmarking studies on the emerging cryptoasset ecosystem and expert in debunking common blockchain myths and misconceptions.

Bitcoin is one the most fascinating socio-economic experiments in human history, organically emerging and developing on a global scale. Bypassing a long-standing problem in computer science – the prevention of doublespends without relying on a central authority – with an economic and game theory-based solution is nothing short of a stroke of genius. That doesn’t mean that Bitcoin is without flaws, however.

Alex de Vries

Independent Researcher

Founder of the blog Digiconomist.net that features the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index. Author of “Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Consumption” and “Renewable Energy Will Not Solve Bitcoin’s Sustainability Problem” published in Joule (Cell Press).

Bitcoin introduced a powerful new technology (blockchain) to the world, but the way it has been set up in Bitcoin gives it the potential to quickly turn into the biggest sustainability problem of our time.

Dr. Stepan Snigirev

Quantum Physicist

Co-founder and CTO of CryptoAdvance, a hardware security module producer with focus on Bitcoin. He holds a PhD in Quantum Physics with over 10 years in academia, software & embedded development.

Bitcoin is based on beautiful math and cutting-edge cryptography. Its fundamental principles eliminate the need for unreliable and unpredictable humans in the system.

Hans-Jörg Naumer

Master of Economics, joined Allianz Global Investors in 2000 and is Head of Global Capital Markets & Thematic Research. Investments, wealth creation and examining trends with a long-term impact (“thematic research”) form the triad of analyses and presentations that he uses to reach both institutional and private investors. He is particularly interested in working with insights derived from behavioural finance and in transferring them to the practical investment business.

Bitcoin has potentially fatal flaws as a currency and asset class – which is why it’s a matter of when, not if, the bitcoin bubble will pop. Yet the blockchain technology that powers bitcoin could bring significant benefits to investors.

Joerg Hermsdorf

Systems Architect and Entrepreneur

Co-founder and CTO of CONSERVE BlockChain Service – a Bitcoin education and solutions provider. He holds a M.S. of Distributed Systems and B.S. in Cognitive Science. He has 20 years of polyglot working experience in building Internet applications and is researching digital currencies and incentives in distributed networks for 14 years.

Bitcoin is a widely mis- and un-understood technology right now. Nevertheless its existence is a natural and inevitable result of human ratio based on our current knowledge of mathematics, physics, information theory and economics. It’s more than just money and payments and a lot deeper then just blockchain technology.

Bob McElrath

Blockchain Architect at Fidelity Investments

Bob works in Fidelity Digital Assets on technical strategy and wallet development, as well as in the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology’s Blockchain Incubator evaluating new networks, protocols and cryptography. Previously he worked at SolidX, Bloomberg, and wrote an altcoin for a startup doing rewards on a blockchain. Prior to working on Bitcoin, Bob has a prior career in theoretical physics, writing 30+ papers on things like the Higgs boson and dark matter.

Bitcoin is a cryptographic representation of the only true asset in the universe: energy.

Dr. Cyrus de la Rubia

Chief Economist of Hamburg Commercial Bank AG

Chief Economist of Hamburg Commercial Bank, lecturer at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and independent consultant at Berlin Economics, an economic policy consultancy for emerging markets. Author of the book “Unser Geld in der Krise” (“Our Money in Trouble”).

Bitcoin is something we should look at not only from the perspective of advanced economies but from the perspective of developing countries where institutions do not work adequately and Bitcoin can have great value added. Still, Bitcoin is in its infancy especially in terms of scalability.

Max Keidun

CEO of Bitcoin P2P exchange Hodl Hodl

Max has 10 years experience in private banking and waleth management for high net worth individuals and worked at Mandatum Life as well as Baltic International Bank and BlueOrange Bank. He also built the real estate platform HouseHodl and is the organiser of the Bitcoin conference Baltic Honeybadger.

Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet, which allows you to financially interact with your peers, without involving a middleman, and in a fast and cheap manner.

Manuel Andersch

Senior Economist and FX Analyst at BayernLB

Manuel works as Economist and FX Analyst in the research team of BayernLB, where he has also been covering Bitcoin for many years. He completed his degree in economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, before receiving his master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh. He was ranked as best FX analyst worldwide by Bloomberg in 2015.

Bitcoin is a system based solely on free choice. Thus, if Bitcoin were to become the money of the 21st century, it is because humankind preferred Bitcoin’s characteristics over those of alternative forms of money.

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit

Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bayreuth and Chief Economist at Degussa

Since 2012, Thorsten Polleit is Chief Economist of Degussa, Europe’s largest precious metal trading house. Before that he worked for more than 15 year in the international investment banking business. Since 2014 Thorsten Polleit is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bayreuth. He is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Deutschland, founded in 2012, and is a Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, US Alabama. Thorsten Polleit is co-founder of and advisor to an Alternative Investment Fund. His last book are “Ludwig von Mises – der kompromisslose Liberale” (2018, F.A.Z.-Verlag) and “Vom intelligenten Investieren” (2018, FinanzbuchVerlag). In 2012 Thorsten Polleit received The O.P. Alford III Prize in Political Economy.

For economic and ethical reasons I call for a free market in money. In addition to gold and silver, bitcoin is clearly a promising candidate in the competition for sound money. In any case: May the best man win.

Dr. Christopher Waller

Executive Vice President and Research Director, Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis

Dr. Waller was an academic for 25 years before joining the Federal Reserve. His research areas are monetary theory and policy, macroeconomics and political economy. He has published in many of the top journals in the economics profession.

Bitcoin will teach us very little from the perspective of monetary theory. However, the distributed ledger technology is an astounding technological breakthrough in terms of decentralized record-keeping.

Prof. Dr. Aleksander Berentsen

Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel

Aleksander Berentsen is Professor of Economic Theory and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel. His research interests include monetary economics and blockchain technologies and is a co-author of the book Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptoassets. He held visiting positions at the University of California in Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Zurich and the Free University of Berlin. He is currently research fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and used to be an external consultant for the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements. He has published academic articles in the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Monetary Economics.

Bitcoin is most the important contribution in economics in the 21st century. For the first time, ownership of virtual property is possible without the need for a central authority – a development with the potential to fundamentally change the current financial system and many areas in business and government.

Prof. Dr. Aleksander Berentsen

Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel

Aleksander Berentsen is Professor of Economic Theory and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel. His research interests include monetary economics and blockchain technologies and is a co-author of the book Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptoassets. He held visiting positions at the University of California in Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Zurich and the Free University of Berlin. He is currently research fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and used to be an external consultant for the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements. He has published academic articles in the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Monetary Economics.

Bitcoin is most the important contribution in economics in the 21st century. For the first time, ownership of virtual property is possible without the need for a central authority – a development with the potential to fundamentally change the current financial system and many areas in business and government.

Shunichi Kimuro

Senior Manager, DG Lab / DG Lab Fund

Senior Manager at Blockchain R&D and Venture Capital at Digital Garage in Japan. Investing several Bitcoin startups and developing Bitcoin related business. He is also Head of Product Management at Crypto Garage, delivering JPY Stable Coin under Japan regulatory sandbox scheme and Bitcoin based p2p derivatives.

Bitcoin is ever-evolving open source innovative financial infrastructure for everyone on top of that a lot of financial products will be developed in a decentralized or trust-minimized way.

Holger Wolff

founder and managing director of MaibornWolff

Maiborn Wolff MaibornWolff, a software development and consulting company with more than 500 employees. With his team he advises renowned customers in all questions of digitization and develops the necessary IT systems. He has long been interested in Bitcoin and supports the community with the operation of Bitcoin and Lightning Nodes and the organization of Meetups.

Bitcoin is the best public infrastructure to build reliable financial software products for the future.

Mai Santamaria

Head of Financial Advisory unit (SFAD) Department of Finance, Ireland

Mai co-authored the Department of Finance paper on Virtual Currencies and Blockchain Technoloy, published in March 2018 (https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d59daf-virtual-currencies-and-blockchain-technology/) She has led the department’s Working Group on blockchain since its creation and has represented Ireland at EU, OECD and G20 blockchain related roundtables and forums. She is a member of BlockchainIreland and a founding member of BlockW. Prior to joining the department of finance, Mai worked in the financial services sector for more than 20 years, in Ireland, UK and Switzerland, in several executive roles within Finance, both in banking and insurance. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland and a native of Barcelona.

Bitcoin is an interesting experiment worth keeping an eye on.

Giacomo Zucco

Director at BHB.Network

Theoretical Physicist as background, former Technology Consultant for Accenture since 2009, serial entrepreneur in the Bitcoin scene since 2013. In 2015 he funded the Milan-based research/development/incubation/consulting firm BlockchainLab (now moved to Switzerland), supporting the creation of a world-class competence center in the field. He now sponsors non-profit open source initiative in Bitcoin with the initiatives BHB Network and TheB, while consulting and teaching with the firm BCademy.

Bitcoin is not MySpace or any other internet app, it’s the Internet protocol. Bitcoin is not Model T car or any other road vehicle, it’s the Road system. Bitcoin is not the Krugerrand or any other gold coinage type, Bitcoin is the Gold element.

11:50

Presentation

Bitcoin as the working free market alternative to national central banks

For a century, governments have enforced a monopoly on the two core functions of central banking: payment clearance and monetary policy. After ten years of reliable operation, Bitcoin has proven itself as the only viable free market alternative capable of performing these functions. Bitcoin replaces politically-controlled money with advanced cryptography, autonomous payment settlement, and the world’s hardest currency and the first strictly scarce liquid asset. Central banks might soon realize they are competing against the most advanced monetary technology ever.

13:00

Lunch Break

14:00

Presentation

Bitcoin as catalyst for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)

While many economist still fight about the question if Bitcoin is money or not, central banks are not willing to wait for an answer. Instead, they are thinking about modernising their money system via Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). There are many motives for central banks to setting up research projects about CBDC. However, it is clear that Bitcoin’s main technological invention of being able to transfer value through the internet in an immutable way requires monetary authorities to rethink their own technology. The presentation will be about the main differences between Bitcoin and CBDC and why Central banks may have a good chance to survive the disruptive Bitcoin-technology if they act soon.

15:20

Presentation

All (Crypto) Roads Lead to Bitcoin

This session will explore the initial design considerations behind Bitcoin, the first private money existing exclusively in the digital realm. Key properties such as artificial scarcity, unseizability, and censorship-resistant value transfer will be discussed, with a focus on how these characteristics are achieved. An argument will be brought forward that Bitcoin (and similar cryptocurrency systems) need to be inefficient by design in order to prevent a single actor from unilaterally taking control. Next, Bitcoin will be compared to other cryptocurrencies in terms of liquidity, network effects, security, and usage; making the point that no cryptocurrency properties are real unless it is nearly impossible to change them. Finally, the session will conclude with cautionary remarks highlighting that all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are ongoing socio-economic experiments that could still fail at any point in time, while also highlighting Bitcoin‘s 10+ year track record.

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15:40

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Presentation

Bitcoin – Beyond money as we know it today

Most of the current public debate is about how Bitcoin competes as a payment technology for existing use-cases from the 20th century and before. Only few see the 21st century monetary and non-monetary use-cases it enables and where Bitcoin is a competition-less, non-optional technology. We’ll also look into the potential market size of these use-cases in the near future.